Feel the Noise

Cinema review Fans of reggaeton and to a lesser extent hip-hop will find something to keep them watching.

Feel the Noise features Omarion Grandberry.

Fans of reggaeton and to a lesser extent hip-hop will find something to keep them watching in yet another movie about young urban males trying to make it in the music industry. It stars the R&B singer Omarion Grandberry as an emerging artist forced to flee New York when he comes under gunfire at a nightclub. His mum sends him to Puerto Rico where he can spend some quality time with his estranged presumed-dead papa (Giancarlo Esposito). The action is full of music movie clichés found in films ranging from Wild Style to Hustle & Flow; unfortunately, if this was a record it wouldn't chart high as it tries unsuccessfully to visually mimic Hype Williams' Belly and plot wise is just a fraction better than Step Up. The strongest scenes all take place in Puerto Rico when the movie uses the estranged family, a struggling band and cute girls to move the camera from one club to another, where arresting dance sequences are shot in a gritty hand-held documentary style. The music will satisfy fans, but when the action returns to New York this becomes as annoying as a skipped CD.